Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice (also known as Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK) is a
pressure group of over 4,000 relatives of people who have died during the
COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. The group created the
National Covid Memorial Wall
The National Covid Memorial Wall in London is a public mural painted by volunteers to commemorate victims of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. Started in March 2021 and stretching more than along the South Bank of the River Thames, o ...
and runs a support group on
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
. They called for a statutory public inquiry into the
UK government's handling of the pandemic.
On 12 May 2021, then-prime minister
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...
announced that the
UK Covid-19 Inquiry would begin in Spring 2022.
Formation
The group was formed in May 2020 by 30 families.
Inquiry calls
The group called for a judge-led statutory public inquiry into the pandemic and the
government's response to it, with a
rapid review phase.
A statutory public inquiry has the power to
subpoena
A subpoena (; also subpœna, supenna or subpena) or witness summons is a writ issued by a government agency, most often a court, to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of ...
people and take evidence under oath.
The group also threatened litigation to force ministers into an inquiry, including a pre-action letter of
judicial review
Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incomp ...
by the
High Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice in London, known properly as His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, are the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Its name is abbreviated as EWHC (Englan ...
, as they argue that the government "serially failed to take reasonable steps to minimise the effects of the pandemic, leading to massive, unnecessary loss of life".
They have dismissed claims by Prime Minister
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...
that ministers "did everything
hey
Hey or Hey! may refer to:
Music
* Hey (band), a Polish rock band
Albums
* ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014
* ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980
* ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title s ...
could ... to minimise loss of life and to minimise suffering" as "an insult to the memory of everyone we have lost and a kick in the teeth for bereaved families who deserve acknowledgement that our loved ones were failed". Lawyers representing the group have acted in major public inquiries including into the
Hillsborough,
Grenfell Tower
Grenfell Tower is a derelict 24-storey residential tower block in North Kensington in London, England. The tower was completed in 1974 as part of the first phase of the Lancaster West Estate. The tower was named after Grenfell Road, which ran to ...
and
Manchester Arena
Manchester Arena, currently referred to as the AO Arena for sponsorship reasons, is an indoor arena in Manchester, England, immediately north of the Manchester city centre, city centre and partly above Manchester Victoria station in air rights s ...
disasters.
The proposed inquiry would include an analysis of: the
test, track and trace system, communication of infection control measures and implementation of
lockdown measures, attempts to redress the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on
ethnic minorities
The term 'minority group' has different usages depending on the context. According to its common usage, a minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number o ...
(specifically
Black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...
and
South Asian people), as well as a review of the functioning of the
National Health Service
The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...
and its staff during the pandemic − including supplies of
personal protective equipment
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is protective clothing, helmets, goggles, or other garments or equipment designed to protect the wearer's body from injury or infection. The hazards addressed by protective equipment include physical, e ...
,
the transfer of patients from hospitals to care homes, risk assessments (including failures to respond to warnings in 2017's
Exercise Cygnus, which reported that the UK was not prepared for a pandemic), isolation and staff testing – and the functioning of
111 services.
On 12 May 2021, Boris Johnson announced that the
UK Covid-19 Inquiry would begin in Spring 2022.
Meeting with officials
The group's representatives have met with Labour leader
Keir Starmer
Sir Keir Rodney Starmer (; born 2 September 1962) is a British politician and barrister who has served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras s ...
, and provided evidence to
Amnesty International on
COVID-19 care home deaths. In meeting with Scottish First Minister
Nicola Sturgeon, Sturgeon said that she would support a UK-wide public inquiry into the handling of the pandemic, or failing that an inquiry into Scotland's handling of the pandemic; however, she did not commit to a date.
Proposed meeting with the prime minister
In 2020, the British government said the then-British prime minister
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...
would not meet with the group as it was currently in litigation with the government. The group disputed this, arguing their pre-action letter for a judicial review did not mean that they were in litigation.
Johnson was invited by the group to meet families of the bereaved seven times, all of which were rejected; however, he visited the
National Covid Memorial Wall
The National Covid Memorial Wall in London is a public mural painted by volunteers to commemorate victims of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. Started in March 2021 and stretching more than along the South Bank of the River Thames, o ...
, which was built by the group, for "quiet reflection" without meeting bereaved families, which a co-founder of the group said was a "a late evening visit under cover of darkness" and "a cynical and insincere move that is deeply hurtful".
Following reports of Johnson allegedly saying "
let the bodies pile high
Boris Johnson's term as the prime minister of the United Kingdom began on 24 July 2019 when he accepted an invitation of Queen Elizabeth II to form a government, following the resignation of his predecessor Theresa May after Parliament's repe ...
" in response to a planned third lockdown, the group accused him of "flippancy" and "callous comments
hich
Ij ( fa, ايج, also Romanized as Īj; also known as Hich and Īch) is a village in Golabar Rural District, in the Central District of Ijrud County, Zanjan Province, Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also ...
will have caused untold hurt to hundreds of thousands". The group argues that, regardless of the veracity of the quoted comments, COVID-19 lockdowns were "needlessly delayed" for political purposes.
See also
*
COVID-19 contracts in the United Kingdom
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, the British government decided in March 2020 to rapidly place contracts and recruit a number of individuals. Shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) were a particular politica ...
*
Statistics of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom
Statistics (from German: ''Statistik'', "description of a state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a scientific, industria ...
References
{{reflist
COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom
2020 establishments in the United Kingdom